1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dual operating system architectures, and in particular, relates to techniques for switching between dual operating system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electronic devices, such as notebook computers and smartphones, have become indispensable for modern day humans.
Conventionally, the operating system of the electronic devices which is mostly used is the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS). Nowadays, however, the Android OS, which is based on a Linux operating system, is also popularly used. The two operating systems perform differently with different operations. In order to take advantage of both of the operating systems, some designs integrate the two operating systems into a single one electronic device. In some designs, the electronic device has only one CPU that processes instructions for dual operating systems, while in some other designs, separate CPUs are respectively in charge of one of the operating systems. Generally, in dual operating system architecture, only one of the operating systems will be in operation while the other will stay in a sleep state at the same time. In the manner, the dual operating systems can share resources with each other and unnecessary conflicts may be prevented.
However, even after the dual operating systems are switched, the driving programs of one of the operating systems which is in the sleep state will still send system commands and settings to peripheral devices, wherein the system commands and settings will sometimes cause conflicts with the system commands and settings sent from a competing operating system which is in operation and initializing the peripheral devices. The conflicts may not only lead to initialization failure and problems with the operation of the peripheral devices, but, in a worst case scenario, system shutdown or crashing.